Olivia Munn gets serious

Olivia Munn is not your typical video-game fanatic. Sure, she
follows tech blogs (Wired's, particularly) and queues
loyally for midnight premieres of superhero movies (most recently
The Avengers) - hell, she even reads
reviews of comic books. Yet this is the same 32-year-old who, this
month, will salvage the Friday nights of the nation's men. When
they are lured by their girlfriends to Steven Soderbergh's
male-stripper flick Magic Mike, Munn's turn as Amber, Channing Tatum's friend-with-benefits, is sure
to sweeten the pill. What's more, the Star Wars devotee is
also about to enter the pantheon of television royalty, starring in
Aaron Sorkin's televisual event The Newsroom as finance
analyst Sloan (no benefits involved).

It's the type of break she has desired since childhood, during
which Munn's (former) stepfather told her she'd never amount to
anything. "I knew if I could just get through it to 18," she says,
"I could start again." Having graduated from the University of
Oklahoma, she did just that, driving to LA in a rickety Land Rover
to find a career. "It broke down every 100 miles, and I had this
book on me: Your First Year In Hollywood."

No surprise, then, that Munn has carved a niche playing strong
female characters (Magic Mike's Amber is a woman in
control). Still, while filming The Newsroom, Munn had to swallow
some criticism. "I talk really fast. My first day on set they were
like, 'Could you slow it down?' And I said, 'Am I the first person
to be told to slow down Sorkin?'"

So, superstar status acquired, is she minded to phone her
stepfather and point out that his prediction was a little off? "The
best revenge is getting to a place where you no longer care about
revenge," she says. "I know if he sees me on a newsstand he's mad.
He hates it. And that's enough."

Magic Mike is out on 11 July. The Newsroom starts in the
autumn on Sky Atlantic HD and Sky Go.